Jefferson had an awkward courtship with Rebecca Burwell, a 16-year-old girl, who declined Jefferson's marriage proposal, and his unwelcome advances towards the wife of a boyhood friend. It resulted in Jefferson putting flowers in his room to wilt all night. Instead, Rebecca Burwell married Jacquelin Ambler, which made her the mother-in-law of the United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, who wrote the famous Marbury vs. Madison decision which was a criticism on President Jefferson.
Answer:
The debate over slavery divided the United States into two sides. The north emerged as the center of antislavery activity during the abolitionist movement. The abolitionists objected to slavery for moral reasons. They believed that it was an unjust practice that stripped humans of their dignity.
Explanation:
Slavery was practiced in British America from the beginning of the colonial era, and was firmly established when the Declaration of Independence of the United States was signed. After this, there was a gradual expansion of abolitionism in the North, that stated that slavery was contrary to human dignity, while the rapid expansion of the cotton industry since the 1800s caused the South to cling tightly to slavery, and try to expand it into the new western territories of the country. Thus, slavery polarized the nation into slave states and free states through the Mason-Dixon line, which separated Maryland (slave) and Pennsylvania (free).
